About 6,750 retirees, or 15 percent of those enrolled in the company’s retirement program, will pay the full cost of premiums starting Jan. 1, spokesman Chris Brathwaite said Friday in an interview. Benefits will be restored for these former workers when they turn 65 provided they retired before Jan. 1, 2000.

Those who aren’t yet 65 and who retired before Jan. 1, 2000, will be eligible for a subsidy after they reach 65. Those who retired after Jan. 1, 2000, will have to pay the full costs of medical insurance premiums, but they will have access to Sears coverage that the company says will cost them less than buying individual coverage.

Dan Quaid, head of the Sears Retiree Club of Chicagoland, said he currently pays $529 a month for himself and his wife under the Sears retiree plan. He expects to pay about $900 a month under the new plan.

"I think it’s the best we’re going to get," said Quaid, 64, who retired from Sears in 1997 after 35 years. "I don’t like the impact it has on me, but it’s one of those things you’ve got to live with."

Some retirees who worried that Sears might drop insurance coverage completely said they were relieved the measures weren’t more severe.

"They thought Sears would do the worst, and they really didn’t," said Ron Olbrysh, chairman of the National Association of Retired Sears Employees.